1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates to devices for displaying and dispensing envelope package goods.
2. Description of Related Art
Envelope packaging for various products, most notably snack foods is well known in the art. This type of packaging has variously also been referred to as “snack packaging” and “single-serve packaging” and typically appear as shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b. 
A number of devices for displaying and dispensing envelope packages—so-called “merchandisers”—are well known in the art, such as that described in the inventor's previous patent in this field, U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,805, issued Apr. 4, 1989, for an APPARATUS FOR SECURELY DISPLAYING AND DISPENSING OF ENVELOPE PACKAGE GOODS, wherein there was disclosed a strip with adhesive areas to which the individual snack bags were adhered. Consumers simply pull a bag off the adhesive area for purchase. This system has the advantage of being able to be preloaded by machine such that the snack distributor merely removes the old strip and hangs a new one already preloaded with snacks. The old strip is taken back and reloaded The drawback of this system is that it is costly to produce because an adhesive must be positioned and applied to the strip. Also, the adhesive becomes weak over time due to airborne dust contamination, eventually rendering the device useless.
Also known are racks with clips for clipping the packages. These are also expensive to produce and troublesome to load. This is particularly troublesome and time-consuming when the rack remains in the store and must be reloaded periodically by manually clipping snack bags into the clips. Another problem arises when attempting to clip more than one bag into a single clip, namely that when the consumer pulls a bag out the other bags fall out.
Most of the merchandiser schemes in the art are complex and costly due to the need for an intermediary attachment device to attach the envelope packages to a support structure. The intermediary may be a metal clip or adhesive as described above, or bits of adhesive tape as described in Belt, U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,778 B1, for an APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING A PRELOADED MERCHANDISER, issued Jun. 18, 2002. The Belt system has the advantage of preloading, but requires the consumption of bits of tape, which are not reusable. Intermediary attachment devices necessarily consume resources and time, as it is necessary to assemble the attachment device to both the support structure and to the bag, thus requiring two attachment steps.
What is needed is a preloadable apparatus for merchandising envelope package goods that does not require the use of any nonreuseable components. What is needed is a merchandizing apparatus that lacks any intermediary attachment device, such that the loading of the apparatus is performed swiftly and efficiently, whether preloaded or not.